By Vishani Ragobeer
CHILD rights activist Karen DeSouza is contending that empathy, compassion, understanding, concern and consideration were seriously lacking for one of the relatives of the Drop-in-Centre victims.The co-founder of Red Thread expressed this view on Friday at Guyana Professional Social Work Practitioners and Educators Conference, held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre at Liliendaal, ECD. Speaking during the panel discussion, ‘Examining Practice: Perspectives from partners and advocates’, DeSouza said one of the mothers of the victim was not allowed to see her surviving children until the Monday after the incident.

She contended that the Child Care and Protection Agency (CCPA) was busy doing damage control, and is not open on week-ends. This, the social activist found strange, since the CCPA had found time to host a press briefing. On this note, she asked the question, “How can you treat another person in this manner?”

Red Thread has also come in for criticism in some quarters, with some contending that the NGO has no moral ground for its harsh stance on the Ministry of Social Protection and subject minister Volda Lawrence.
Some have even asked where Red Thread was when the children were hungry.

DeSouza said there are attempts to “demonise the parents (of the victims) in order to draw attention away from the agency, and the “defensiveness that has arisen out of this incident is not good”.

DeSouza also noted that the quality of reports from a lot of social workers is very poor, but she pointed out that “social workers in Guyana are overworked and underpaid.”

The Ministry of Social Protection’s Chief Probation and Social Service Officer, Forbes Monroe, has said the court reports are being remodelled to withstand the scrutiny of the court, and the heavily criticised Public Assistance Programme is being reviewed and will be awarded following thorough examination of the situation of the beneficiaries.
This, he said, is a work in progress and should be completed and implemented by year-end.

The Guyana Professional Social Work Practitioners and Educators Conference was organised by the University of Guyana in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Protection and UNICEF. It sought to highlight issues regarding the quality of social service in Guyana, and provide effective solutions to them.